AIR TRAVEL
Etihad Airways and partner Jet Airways together
will add 28 weekly flights
between Abu Dhabi and
India next year, including
three Indian cities not currently served by the carriers.
On Feb. 1, Etihad, which
currently has 175 weekly
flights between Abu Dhabi
and 11 Indian cities, will
double its service between
Abu Dhabi and Ahmedabad
to twice daily. Additionally,
it will add a fourth daily
flight to Kozhikode, in
India’s southwestern Kerala
province, on March 26. Jet
Airways, in which Etihad
has a minority stake, will
add daily service between
Abu Dhabi and Tiruchirappalli
in southern India on Feb.
1 and to each Kannur and
Chandigarh later in the year,
depending on when those
airports are ready for the
flights. On Jan. 1 5, the carrier also will add a second
daily service between Abu
Dhabi and New Delhi. All
the new services are pending government approval.
Former Delta Air Lines
CEO Richard Anderson
has stepped down as
executive chairman of
the carrier’s board of
directors, ending his brief
stint in the role. Anderson served as Delta CEO
from August 2007 until he
retired in May, at which
time he became executive chairman. Former
Home Depot chairman
and CEO Francis Blake,
a Delta board member
since July 2014, will
succeed Anderson as a
nonexecutive chairman.
Deutsche Lufthansa
AG’s supervisory board
approved the acquisition
of all remaining shares of
Brussels Airlines parent
company SN Airholding.
Lufthansa plans to complete the acquisition in early
2017, following a shareholder vote. Lufthansa bought
45 percent of Brussels
Airlines in 2009 and now is
exercising that deal’s option
to buy the remaining 55
percent of shares.
The average U.S. inflation-adjusted domestic airfare
fell 9.6 percent year over
year in the second quarter
to $390, according to the
U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. That
marks six consecutive
quarters of decline. Average
fares do not include ancillary
fees or factor in frequent-fly-er or zero fares.
LODGING
China’s HNA Group will
acquire a 25 percent
equity interest in Hilton
Worldwide from Black-
stone. The deal is valued
at approximately $6.5
billion, bringing Blackstone’s
interest in Hilton down to 21
percent. HNA will own 25
percent not only of Hilton
Worldwide but also of the
planned spinoffs of Park
Hotels & Resorts and Hilton
Grand Vacations. HNA
made headlines this year
when a unit of the Chinese
conglomerate purchased
Carlson Hotels. HNA also
has a 15 percent stake in
Red Lion Hotels Corp. and
is the largest shareholder
in Spain’s NH Hotels. The
transaction is expected to
close in the first quarter of
next year.
U.S. corporate hotel rates
could increase even less
than first forecast for 2017,
according to Bjorn Hanson,
a clinical professor for the
NYU School of Professional
Studies Jonathan M. Tisch
Center for Hospitality and
Tourism. Hanson has revised his previous projection
that corporate rates will
increase between 3. 25 percent and 4 percent, saying
now that they will increase
between 2.75 percent
and 3. 5 percent. Hanson’s
estimates are based on interviews with hotel industry
executives and corporate
travel executives and on
analysis of industry financial
data, press releases and
hotel and brand websites.
His revision comes in light
of slowing rate growth in
the U.S. hotel industry and
lackluster RevPAR gains
from hoteliers during the
third quarter.
InterContinental Hotels
Group saw revenue per
available room increase
1.3 percent year over year
during the third quarter.
The company did not report
specific occupancy and
average daily rate figures,
though its media release
pegged U.S. occupancy
levels at above 75 percent.
IHG opened 7,000 rooms,
or 51 hotels, during the
quarter and removed 3,000
rooms, or 22 hotels. CFO
Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson said
the company will continue
to remove properties in the
interest of improving the
portfolio. IHG signed 19,000
Indira Gandhi International
Airport in New Delhi